A. Campbell Ling San Jose State University San Jose, CA 95192
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Curricuium
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The new Nuclear Science Faciliv at San Jose State
Nuclear Science in the Undergraduate
San Jose State University (SJSU), the oldest institution for public education in California, is unusual in offering a Baccalaureate degree specializing in radiochemistry, making it virtually unique in this country. Many institutions offer maduate training in this suhiect. UC-Berkeley, among others, is international6 known foisuch graduate programs, hut instrumentation and associated needs make such programs prohibitively expensive for undergraduate training. The Radiochemistry Concentration involves a sequence of lecture and lahoratory courses in addition to the usual courses demanded for the B.S. Chemistry Degree in compliance with the recommendations of the American Chemical Society. In the usual principal sequence are Chemistry 116,117,118,~and 123: involving, a lecture course in nuclear -. res~ectively, chemistry and instrument&on, a lahoratory course in radioisotope techniques, a lecture course in radiation biochemist~ oriented urincinallv to human effects. and a course in radiatfon safety. i n addition, students may take Chemistry 207. a lahoratorv course in the svnthesis.. ~urification and . isolation of high specific activity organic compounds (in excess of 90 mole 90 C-14 and as much as 1 Ci Der experiment, invcJring nwtaholic and conventional synrh&is~,and Ch~,rnistry 196, n I-1111itcourse i n liquid scintillationsp~tnmctry. Some of the pliy~icalchemistryif~~denti will take Phy>ici 12.1 w e the'l'ahle,,and addirion;~l1-unitcourses in X-ray tlutrrescenre analysis, nuclear spectrometry, dating techniques, and radiation chemistry are planned for the future. For students in the B.A. Chemistry Program, or B.A. or B.S. courses other than chemistry, Chemistry 102 is a special combined lahoratory and lecture course that embodies the elements of 116 and 117. This course was originally designed for science teachers and for technicians who want to update their backgrounds via an extension course in the evenings. This course has also proven to he popular with both high school teachers and high school students taking advanced courses prior to graduation from high school. In addition, the large General Chemistry courses are exposed to one experiment in nuclear science to reinforce the lecture material received (where they determine the half life of a short-lived radionuclide). Similarly, the medical hiochemistry and clinical chemistry lahoratories complete a lahoratory sequence in radioimmunoassay andlor dilution analvsis. ~ d ~ o r t a to u t all schools in the university, and of major importance to the School of Science, are the undergraduate research programs, to which Nuclear Science makes a major contribution in the University as a whole. The science programs a t SJSU, especially chemistry, heavily emphasize the experimental approach to professional training. Laboratories, even at the freshman level, are project-oriented, and as the ,students progress through the B.S. or B.A. program, they will encounter most of the modern instrumentation. and most of the modrrn techniques, heing used hy p(8tt:ntial t:mployers. Since this Jnurnnl is one of thr principal publicationsfron~ the Amrrirnn ('hcmical Snciety, the chemistry pnrprams haw been ernphasiaed. However, it s h d d not he fi,ryolten that nuclear science is interdisciplinary in nature, thus the physics department offers a pair of lecturellahoratory courses in Nuclear Physics, and the Biological Sciences Division, par-
ticularly the Department of Microbiology, makes extensive use of the available instrumentation for isotope studies in plant physiology, microbiology, molecular biology, virology, and genetics. The chemistry department also offers an MS. Degree specifically oriented to nuclear science, based on the course sequence 116,117,118, and 123, supplemented by Chemistry 196 and 207, and a self-study program and research Thesis usual for M S . programs. Moreover, these activities are strongly complemented by collaborative research through adjacent Federal, state, and private lahoratories. A summary of courses in nuclear science a t SJSU is given in th,e table. The New Nuclear Science Facility at SJSU
Although the Radiochemistry program is popular and well established (early 1950's), it has recently acquired considerable impetus from the opening of the new Nuclear Science Facility at SJSU. Funded by the State of California, this Facility has as its primary purpose the undergraduate teaching of all aspects of radiation chemistry, radiochemistry, isotope technology, and nuclear instrumentation, excluding experimental topics in high energy physics, and reactor technology. The facility is a 3-storey self-contained unit with approximately 10,000 square feet of usable floor space. The educational and administrative rationale for its operation postulates that it he an interdisciplinary unit answering directly to the Dean of Science. There are no permanent faculty assigned, hut the facility does have a full time team of permanent staff, including a Radiation Safety Officer, Laboratory Manager, electronics technician, and secretary. Some unusual features of this facility are: All water used is channeled to a pair of 5,000 gallon holding tanks. As soon as one is full (monitored from the Facility Office) effluent is switched to the other tank. Bureau of Radiological Health mandated monitoring procedures determine whether this water can he dumped into the city sewers or whether it has to he treated as active waste and removed-an expensive process! All exit doors from the facility are monitored by closed circuit television and are connected to a master alarm system. The facility operates its own regulated power supplies (ax. and d.c.) to obviate damage and inconvenience from inadvertent power stoppages in the public supply. The large number of lead bricks used, the equipment with intrinsic lead shielding, and the storage facilities needed for high-energy, high-activity radioisotopes leads to floor stresses higher than normal, a facet which was anticioated in the initial desien. " In designing the facility, lahoratories were made small deliberately (limited to 12 persons), since the level of supervision needed for laboratories involving radioisotope techniques is much greater than for other academic lahoratories. Thus, even the Freshman program, involving 300 students, will he broken down into sets of 12, necessitating considerable faculty involvement compared to other academic programs. Included in the facility are laboratories for environmental studies, high activity carbon-14 syntheses, radiation chemistry, tritium projects, high activity hetalgamma work, alpha-emitting studies, and a separately air conditioned computer center. Other supporting facilities include a hasement storage area for the isotope inventory, neutron generator, Volume 56. Number 9, September 1979 1 595
Undergraduate Courses Offered in Nuclear Science at SJSU
Course Title and Description
Number of Units
Hours of Lecture
Hours 01 Lab
Number of students enrolled
3 2 3 10-20 CHEMISTRY 102 (Fall Semester) "INTRODUCTORY RADIOISOTOPE TECHNIQUES" A general course for science and nonscience students. uses exempt quantities of radiation or sealed sources, cannot be used for B.S. Chemistry credit. CHEMISTRY 116 (Fall 2 2 25-35 Semester) "NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY' A general lecture course in nuclear chemistry, radiochemistry, and radiation chemistry (Prerequisites: 1 year each of college chemistry and physics) CHEMISTRY 117 (Spring 3 1 6 10-20 s.mc~terl -. .. .-. , "RADIOCHEMISTRY TECHNIQUES" A laboratory course in radioisotope techniques and nuclear instrumentation (Prerequisitesinclude Chemistry 116 and 123).
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CHEMISTRY 118 (Spring 3 3 Semester) "RADIATION CHEMISTRY IN BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS'
8-15
CHEMISTRY 123 (Both 2 2. 50-70 Semesters) per year "RADIATION SAFETY" A basic lecture courseein heaith-physics and ionizing-radiation safety (limited to "Doer division science and enaineerinal. CHEMISTRY 196 (January 1 1 or 3 20-30 I"t.rs~ssinnl ............, "LIQUID SCINTILLATION SPECTROMETRY" A Combined iecture/laboratory wonshop in fundamental and advanced aspects of liquid scintillationspectrometry (Prerequisitesof 1 year each of college level chemistry and physics. and/or Junior standing in sciencelenginesring). CHEMISTRY 207 (Fall Semester)
2
8
6-15
A aooratcq c o m e cover ng the essentials of handl.ng,s)ntneS z ng. purity ng. and separating raam abelled compounds with h ph specific act "81es (Preroquisites of two semesters of Organic Chemistry, 116. 117, and 123). PHYSICS 122 (Fall 3 3 10-15 Semester) "MODERN PHYSICS' A basic lecture course in relativistic mechanics and nuclear structure. 1 3 5-10 PHYSICS 124 (Spring Semester) "NUCLEAR PHYSICS LABORATORY" A basic laboratory course in detection, measurement, and imerpretation of nuclear energy changes, detector design parameters and associated eiechoniCs. 1-4 BIOLOGYlCHEMISTRY/ PHYSICS 180 "UNDERGRADUATE HONORS RESEARCH Individual research participationfor undergraduates.
3-12
10-20 per year
BlOLOGY/CHEMISTRY/ 1-3 1-3 10-20 PHYSICS 184 per yew "DIRECTED READING Individually tutored approaches to advanced topics in each field includes one ahour labaatory during me semester.
fuges and routine analytical spectrometers of different kinds. The facility contains an equipment inventory in excess of $1 million. A major part of this equipment is NIM-module based instrumentation for Geiger-Mueller, proportional, fixed multiple channel counters, and sliding-window or slidingpulse single channel analyzers with NaI, CdTe, GeLi, SiLi, and surface barrier detectors. The facility maintains a "library" of replicate units (up to 20-fold replication) which allows us to replace a unit qu&kly and to repair it a t our leisure. It has ~edagogicaladvantages, too, in that students can easily relate the hioik diserams seen in lectures and textbooks to the actual assemblage they are using. Other instruments include two comnuterized 4096-channel analvzers. . . simultaneous and sequential liquid scintillation spectrometers, tlc and paper scanners, radiochromatographic detectors, automated oxidation devices for liquid scintillation sample preparation, low background planchette counters for environmental purposes, and automated gamma-counters. The facility contains a 4,000 Ci Cs-137 gamma-facility, several high intensity photolytic sources, microwave discharge units, and a 10 Ci Pu-Be neutron generator for teaching and studying radiation effects in various materials. Computational facilities include a Fortran IV based 64K-mini-computer ("floppy" discs), an 8K machinelanguage programmahle computer (rigid 3.6M disc-based), computer averaging devices for the major spectrometers, multiple card-hased programmable desktop computers and handheld calculators for individual student use in 12-person classes. Academic Programs for Students Outside SJSU Since the facility is State funded (and believed to he unique in the world a t nresent). the expertise and equipment is beina made accessihie to st"deuts in other ~ a l i f o r n i aState inst; tutions, Junior Colleges, and high schools. In the few years that the facility has been open, more than 800 high school students have visited the facility from more than 20 high schwli, togethpr ulith nmre than 4011 crudpntsfrom 111cnIJunior Cu1lrre.i. 'I'he3~.visits hare u.ually heen unc d two kinds. Groups of approximately 20-40 &dents have conducted simple experiments illustrating various concepts in nuclear science led by their instructor rather than an SJSU faculty member. Each experiment takes from 30-60 min to complete, and some student erouns .. . elect to comnlete two such exercises. Kquipmenr and m a t e r i ~ l for i up t o 2r1 sepnriltr pairs of students are onnided I>\. 9 S U . and students utilizt. e\uerimmtal procedure "sheets'; supplied by their instrucior or by SJSU. A second type of visit usually involves larger groups of students who merely want to tour through the facility and to be guided via demonstrations and short descriptive talks into a brief surface understanding of modern nuclear science instrumentation and oractice. These tours and demonstrations have been extendek to third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children from the State Mentallv Gifted Minoritv Proeram. l tour is us~tallyaccompnnird In t h ~ latter s case, the v i > ~and hv a RO-IU min "chernia a1 mwic" sellurnar aiwn IIV studmt affiliate members of the ~ m e i i c a n~ i e m i c asociety. l In addition to visits to the facility and use of equipment directly by students outside of SJSU, faculty from the facility programs have taken equipment to high schools and J.C.'s and conducted guest lecture/demonstrations, or have lent equipment so that high school or J.C. instructors can conduct such a sequence for thems~lvr.;.A valuahl~.boost to such activiti1.i has twm the rpwnt award (rf a National Science course for high s(:hooI Fmmdarim grant, ~llO\lillga spt~(:~itl tearhwi ru be scheduled for the hpring Semester 1973. It is hoprd that this u5,ernll proaram will serve to aid in dispelling i commoti rnisrmccptio~~s nmcerning some of the m \ ~ h and rhr halards and hen~fitsto be derived from nuclear LVII
